“Filled to Overflowing” by Joakim Lundqvist

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Amen.

This weekend is the last one of our series called Empowered, where we focus the teaching on the Holy Spirit.

And today I want to speak to you on being filled to overflowing.

Filled to overflowing.

Let's just pray right now and open up our hearts.

Holy Spirit, we thank you and we invite you.

We don't just want to talk about you.

We want to experience your presence.

And we pray that as we open our hearts, that you will touch our eyes and open our eyes so we can see something we haven't seen before.

That you will touch our ears and open our ears so we can hear something we haven't heard before, and so we can embrace fully whatever you want to speak to us about this day.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

If you brought your Bible, please turn with me to Luke chapter 11, verse 13.

Luke 11:13

I just want to say straight away that we're gonna do a whole lot of Bible reading today because I do believe from the bottom of my heart that as we speak, especially about the Holy Spirit, or what I'm gonna do today, focus on the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

It's so important for us not to base that on experiences or emotions, but on the word of God.

Faith always begin, begins where the word of God, where the will of God is known.

And as we read Luke 11, verse 13, we read truly about the foundational will of God in regards to giving the Holy Spirit.

Luke 11:13

Jesus says, if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

This is our the foundation that we're gonna build everything upon.

God wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit, he's anxious that you live your life here in this earth, on this earth, filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.

Now, as we read the New Testament, we see that God's giving of the Holy Spirit happens in primarily two different ways, and we're gonna study them both.

So we're gonna move on to Romans chapter 8 and verse 8 and read about the initial uh giving of the Holy Spirit from the Father.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Romans 8, verse 8.

Romans 8:8

Paul says, So then those who are in the flesh and can cannot please God, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.

Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, there we go again, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Three times Paul speaks about the spirit that dwells in you, about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And it's clear from the context that this is a gift that emerged from salvation.

When you receive Jesus as your Lord, when you receive forgiveness from your sins, when you become a child of God through God's grace by faith in Jesus Christ, then you receive the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit.

And he won't treat you like his Airbnb, like he would come and go.

You become his permanent habitation, and the rest of your life is going to be focused on increasing your awareness about the fact that the Holy Spirit is with you every single day of your life.

So part of God's giving us the Holy Spirit is connected to salvation.

As we receive salvation, we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But then it's clear from the New Testament that there is also another second experience that the Bible speaks of as the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

And what is important for us to understand is that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a separate experience from salvation.

As we open our hearts and make Jesus our Lord, we accept salvation, and in doing so, we also receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But then there is a second separate experience that is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and we're gonna see this clearly from scripture.

So let's go to John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

I love John chapter 20 so much.

John 20 · chapter mention

It's the chapter of resurrection, it starts about with Mary encountering the risen Christ on the morning of resurrection outside the open grave.

And as we drop down to verse 19 of John 20, Jesus reveals himself for the very first time as the resurrected Savior to his disciples.

And it says, On the evening of that first day of the week, that is Resurrection Sunday, when the disciples were together with doors locked for the fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

After he said this, he showed them his hands inside.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

This is without a shadow of a doubt, their moment of salvation.

This group of people had been following Jesus, some of them for three years, but even though they were following him, the price had not yet been paid for their salvation, the blood had not yet been shed, but now the veil had been torn in two.

And finally, Jesus could breathe on them, just like God breathed life into Adam in the Garden of Eden, and he says, Receive the Holy Spirit, receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But if we just move on a few weeks in the story, Acts chapter 1 and verse 3.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

It says, After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

On one occasion, when he was eating with them, he gave them this command do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So please note, on the eve of Jesus' resurrection, he breathed on the disciples and said, Receive the Holy Spirit, but then he says that a bit later you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Do you see this?

Two different experiences.

First, salvation, which brings you the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and then the baptism in the Holy Spirit as a second separate experience.

Now, how why?

What what is what is the the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and how does that differentiate from the baptism in the Holy Spirit?

I'm glad you asked.

I was just getting there.

You see, let's just illustrate it this way.

Let's say this glass is you and I, and the water obviously is the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is this.

When you accept Jesus, you're not forgiven for half of your sins.

All of your sins are forgiven.

You're not getting a ticket halfway to heaven, you get full access to heaven when your life in this earth is over.

You don't become half a child of God, you fully become a son or a daughter of God.

Basically, salvation includes everything that you need for you.

So, what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

It's this.

It's your life, the spirit inside you, overflowing to minister to other people.

It's your cup overflowing so rivers of living water can flow out, and so you can become a salt of the earth and a light in this world.

Basically, salvation contains all you need for you, but the baptism in the spirit contains all you need for others.

And you know what?

Others is the reason you're still here, my friend.

Because it was only about you, then I guess God would have raptured you two seconds after you accepted Christ.

Why would He have you stay in this dark and filthy world if it was only about you when he had a beautiful heaven prepared?

You are here because of other people.

You are here to minister to other people, love on other people, share Jesus with other people, and that's what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is all about.

Let's go on reading in Acts chapter 8.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

We will see another example of how these are two different experiences, both, of course, important, but they are separate for a clear reason.

Acts chapter 8, the context of this chapter is that there's a persecution all over Jerusalem, and the apostles have been scattered.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And in verse 4, we read, Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.

We drop down to verse 12.

But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

So Philip comes to the area of Samaria, he preaches the gospel, people get faith in Jesus Christ, they proclaim him as their Lord, and as a sign, they're getting baptized in the name of Jesus.

Verse 14 when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers.

So these are a group of new Christians, they have accepted the gift of salvation and, in doing so, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But then they prayed that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them, referring to the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

So through salvation, accepting Christ, they received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But then, when the apostles heard this, they were so anxious that these new believers would also be baptized in the Holy Spirit as soon as possible.

So that don't they don't become introvert Christians, but outgoing, outreaching Christians that could help fulfill the Great Commission.

And so they sent Peter and John, that's their main two guys, to make sure that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is also ministered to this group of people.

Let's speak a little bit now about the purposes of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Why is this such a beautiful and important gift?

Now there are so many purposes, but I've narrowed it down to three.

We need our three points.

This is a Christian service after all.

Number one, and by far the most important one, the most important reason, purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

It's about sharing Jesus effectively.

It's about sharing Jesus effectively.

Gateway, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not primarily about things that's gonna take place inside the church, but your your life and mine outside the church.

Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Jesus' very last words before he's taken up to heaven, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit will turn you into a soul winner, it will minister the heart of God for the people around you on your inside, it will give you the right words at the right time, and it will give you a passion for mission.

And this is true not only on an individual level, but also on a collective level.

The spirit-filled church will always be passionate about mission, it will always be passionate about outreach and reaching yet another soul with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as I prepared this message, a memory came back from way back, and I just want to share this testimony from the early days of our church back in Sweden.

If you have if you haven't seen me before, I'm a Swede by birth, but a Texan by heart.

So, so back in our early days as a church, we had just been around for a few years.

I think we were about 500 or 600 members at the time.

We were just building, constructing our first church building, and we were doing building funds to raise money for it, and we had a lot of excitement going on.

But right in the middle of that process, we got a prophetic word from the Lord.

Now, let me clarify: we're not the kind of church who will just run anywhere on any prophetic word.

But this was a word that resonated with all of our hearts.

We understood in the on the inside, this is God speaking to us.

There is something special about this word, and we need to obey it.

And this was the word.

In four years' time, the iron curtain will fall down, and the Soviet Union will open up for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The yoke of communism will be broken.

So, you need in the upcoming four years, you need to raise 40 million krona, which is equal to four and a half million US dollars.

Now bear in mind, we're like five, six hundred people.

We're already giving to our new church building, and a lot of our people are taxed 55, 60 percent.

Our sales tax is 25 percent, our gas is 10 bucks a gallon, and giving is not tax deductible.

So basically, for us to kind of add on to the building fund and encourage our church members to give even more, we were so we were like shaken on the inside.

We we can't demand that, but still we recognize this as a word from the Lord.

So we shared it with the church, and the whole church rose as one man, convinced in their heart, this is God Himself speaking to us.

And by the grace of God, in four years we were able to raise five million US dollars in this fund.

And sure enough, after four years, the iron curtain collapsed, the Soviet, the the uh chain of Soviet Union broke, and what we saw were an incredible hunger for God after 70 years of atheism.

So our first investment uh with the money that we now had, because the Spirit of God had prepared us, was to buy 100 VCRs.

Now, 30% of you don't even know what that is.

Let me just say the VCRs were like the great-grandparents of DVDs, Blu-rays, and nowadays streaming services.

We sent these 100 VCRs into the Soviet Union and they spread all over the continent.

And then we started to record the preaching of the gospel, the teaching of the word of God, dubbed the messages into Russian, and we sent them in on videotapes, and people started meeting by the hundreds by each VCR and started to receive the word of God and started to receive salvation through the word of the Lord.

And because we've been talking about this for all these four years, our church was already motivated to go in on short-term mission teams, long-term mission teams.

Many families moved into the former Soviet Union and stayed there for years and years, establishing local churches.

And the next thing that happened was that some of our team connected with the guy who was like a high-ranking official within the KGB.

That's the the Soviet secret police, and he didn't share our faith, but he loved our passion.

So when he heard us, he said this, you know what?

I have access to a train.

Now we've been using this train for decades to go up and down the Soviet Union and spread the message of communism, and I don't really know why I'm telling you this, but I'll give you access to that train so you can spread your message.

So, so for two years in a row, we sent massive teams into the Soviet Union.

They boarded the trains alongside thousands and thousands of New Testaments in Russian and books about Jesus in Russian, and went up and down the Trans-Siberian Railway, stopped at every single city.

We had street outreach, street meetings, led people to the Lord, and today, in every one of those cities, there is a strong, growing word of life church.

And even as the train passed through villages and the countryside, and we didn't have the time to stop, we slowed the train down.

The team opened the windows and threw out New Testaments and books, and people were running next to the train and they picked the books up.

And you know, church, as I shared this testimony in a missions conference in Australia just a few years ago, after the session was over, a couple came up to me, tears running down their face, and they said, We grew up in the Soviet Union, and when we were kids, we ran next to that train, and we picked up a booklet about Jesus, and we read about Jesus, and we accepted Jesus, and now we're pastoring a Russian-speaking church in Brisbane, Australia.

Today there are 390 word of life churches all over the former Soviet Union, and all of that went back to that word from the Lord.

I can tell you, we could have done, we couldn't have done anything of this without the power of the Holy Spirit released through the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The second thing, well, the first thing was sharing Jesus effectively.

The second purpose I want to mention is stirring God's gifts and perspectives, stirring God's gifts and perspectives.

We live in a dark world, we're constantly under pressure as we just live out our faith uh in our daily walk, and we need that stirring of God's gifts, we need that stirring of God's perspectives.

And in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 6, Paul writes, Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

But that spirit of power and love and a sound mind needs to be stirred up inside of us all the time.

Jude verse 20 says that we build ourselves up.

We stir ourselves up as we're praying in the Holy Spirit.

And I can even not even put into word how much of a blessing my prayer language has been throughout the years.

Just starting my day, praying in the Holy Spirit, stirring up the gift of God, stirring up the perspectives of God.

You know, church, I love to cook.

That's one of the ways I unwind and relax.

And one of the favorite dishes that I love to make, Maria knows about this, is a French fish soup.

Ooh.

It's a tomato-based, creamy soup, and there's so much good stuff in that soup.

But every time I make it and I offer it to friends, I always have to say, don't just take from the surface of the pot.

Because down there in the bottom is where the cod is, it's where the onion is, it's where the fennel is, it's where the potato is, it's where the thyme and the rosemary.

You all getting hungry now.

So I always say, before you take it, stir it, stir it around, because otherwise you just get a bowl of broth.

And it will be okay tasting, but when you stir the thing, you'll get the full taste.

Exactly the same about our walk with God.

As we stir our gifts, as we stir up the perspectives of the Lord praying in the Holy Spirit, then we get the full taste of what walking with Jesus is all about.

Now, speaking about praying in tongues and speaking about the gift of that private private prayer language, I do believe from scripture that that speaking in new tongues is the biblical uh like sign, outward sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

However, I do not believe that if you don't speak in tongues from day one, then that means you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.

I don't believe that at all.

For some it comes straight away, for some it's something we grow into.

But the foundation of us being filled with the Holy Spirit, as we read in Luke 11, is that we ask for it.

Because God will always give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.

Amen.

Okay, one final thing here, one final purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and that relates to seeking divine wisdom and favor.

The first is about sharing, the second is about stirring, the third one is about seeking divine wisdom and favor.

Because so many times we don't know how to pray, we don't know what we should pray for, we know the general will of God from the word of God, but we might not know the specific will of God for this specific situation.

And Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, verse 26 likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:26

In the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you get that ability to just pray without even knowing exactly in your mind, in your intellect, what you pray for, but the spirit can pray through you and in you.

And I look back at my life and I see so many occasions where that has happened.

Um, I have a friend who is a missionary in Africa, and and he told me about a friend of his who is also a missionary in Africa, and and this guy ended up in financial uh in a financially stressful situation.

He lost a number of his sponsors, and all of a sudden he was left in a situation where his whole family was doing missionary work in Tanzania, Africa, but now he couldn't even provide financially for his own family, and this caused a lot of distress.

So this missionary went to a prayer meeting.

I don't know if you've been to a prayer meeting in Africa, it's intense, it's amazing and intense.

So he was standing there taking part in the prayer meeting, he was lifting his hands, he was speaking in tongues, worshiping Jesus in his heart, and then when the meeting came to a close, this the person that sat exactly in front of him turned around to him, took out his checkbook, and wrote a check for a significant amount of money.

And the missionary said, How in the world could you have known what kind of needs I had, financial needs?

This guy said, What do you mean?

How could I have known?

You've been standing there for 45 minutes, speaking the language of my native tribe in South Tanzania, going on and on and on of how you need money and you don't know what to do, and and how you really need for someone to provide you with a financial blessing.

I'm not saying that might happen to every single one of us, but that underlines the whole concept of praying in the spirit and seeking divine wisdom and favor.

Amen.

In just a few minutes, I wanna I want to pray for you.

If you are here today and you have not yet received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or maybe you did way back then, but you haven't really stirred the pot in a long time, and you just would like that gift, that gift from the Father refreshed in your life.

Or maybe you have received the Holy Spirit, but you haven't found a release in your own personal private prayer language.

If you're in any of these categories, I would love to pray for you and pray with you in just a few minutes.

But let me just share one more thing before I do and get very personal with you.

Um, when I was 18 years old, my my mother was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor.

Uh, the the doctors could not even promise her even months to live, they just didn't know.

But by the grace of God, she got to live 24 more years after that diagnosis.

And she had a great life.

She was doing ministry, she was heading up our prayer ministry, she traveled speaking on prayer, and she had so many good days, but also throughout those 24 years, she had times where she grew worse, when she grew weaker, and every single time when that happened, we prayed for her, we proclaimed the word of God over her, we prophesied over her, we we we we went into spiritual warfare, and every single time that happened, she bounced back.

Her health was restored, and and she was right back her normal self.

But then after 24 years, she got worse again, she grew weak, and we were just ready.

That was our gut instinct now to just walk straight into prayer and praying in the spirit and proclaiming the word of God.

But all of a sudden, it was like the spirit just said, it's her appointed time.

And instead of standing on the wall and proclaiming the word and going to spiritual warfare, we found ourselves just praying that the peace of God that passes all understanding would guard her heart and her mind.

And as the months passed by, she grew weaker, and then slowly but beautifully and peacefully she passed away into glory.

And you know what?

Because the spirit had told us beforehand, I don't look back on that as a failure.

I look back at that with gratitude and beauty, because the spirit had already ministered to our hearts and given us divine wisdom that was beyond our own.

Thank God for the Holy Spirit.

Thank God for the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit.

We just thank you so much that you have been sent by the Father and that you're ready to fill us up.

We thank you for salvation that is all we need for us, and we thank you for the baptism in the Holy Spirit that is all we need for others.

And right now, Father, for the minutes that that come, I pray that your spirit will be so present in any heart, especially those hearts that call out for more of you.

And I pray you will minister to your people in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.